NHL: Sidney Crosby leads his Pittsburgh Penguins into Toronto with playoffs within reach

The great Sidney Crosby is in town tonight to lead his Pittsburgh Penguins against the Toronto Maple Leafs, a team that, with six games to go in the regular season, seem more interested in lineup experimentation with their playoff opponents whittled down to two possibilities (Florida or Boston) than winning games.

The goods on the injury front for the Leafs is it appears that D Timothy Liljegren and F Calle Jarnkrok will be back for the last two games of the regular season. Joel Edmundson is listed as out for tonight on ESPN.com but it’s likely the same deal with him – maintenance until the real games get going. 

The Penguins? Different story, with their 36-year-old captain playing at a near-MVP level all season. OK, he isn’t playing at the McDavid, Kucherov, or MacKinnon levels, but who among you predicted this level of production from Crosby, a past winner of Stanley Cups (three times) and league MVPs (twice), playoff MVPs (twice) and Olympic gold medals (twice), coming into this season?

The Penguins go into the game 36-30-11-83, one point behind the Detroit Red Wings for the last wildcard spot in the Eastern Conference. 

🏒 Bet on Penguins vs. Maple Leafs at DraftKings 🏒

On March 8 Pens’ GM Kyle Dubas traded long-time Crosby teammate Jake Guentzel to the Carolina Hurricanes. 

Now, Crosby is far too savvy to reveal his truest thoughts to folks outside his inner circle, so most sports media typists left it up to their facial expression-reading skills to conclude that Crosby was none too happy about the trade. The Pens appeared to be throwing in the towel on the season.

Now look at them – winners of four straight, 6-2-2 in their last ten, and like Jon Snow, out of nowhere, awakened from the dead. Crosby totals are 40-45-85, 17^th in NHL scoring, five goals and an assist, and a +4, in his last five games, with the season in the line. He’s just willing his team to a playoff spot, which is what true Hall of Famers do. 

FanDuel has had a sports betting market up for a while now – Will Sidney Crosby be a Pittsburgh Penguin Week 1 of the 2024-2025 NHL Season? A quick peak there this morning shows the odds for “yes” are at 1.11, “no” at 6.00. “Yes” opened at 1.07 and “no” opened at 8.50, a spokesperson for FanDuel said. 

And to make the Playoffs, for the Eastern Conference, FanDuel has the New York Islanders at 1.38, the Red Wings at 1.71, the Penguins at 2.58, then the Alex Ovechkin-led Washington Capitals at 4.00, who are falling after dropping a head shaker, a 3-2 OT loss, last night to the lowly Ottawa Senators. None of those teams have Crosby though.

Penguins vs. Maple Leafs Odds & Player Props

For the Leafs tonight, do they concentrate on getting Auston Matthews to 70 goals or play defense and clamp down on Crosby and Co.?

Game time is 7 p.m., broadcast on Sportsnet. Here’s the odds chart, as of noon EST:

Looking at BetMGM, 63% of spread bets are on the Leafs, with 69% of money bets on the Leafs also.

Are you going to bet against Crosby?

On the most bet player prop side, in terms of NHL betting odds, according to DraftKings, Matthews Anytime Goalscorer (1.80), Matthews First Goalscorer (6.00), Matthews Over 4.5 Shots on Goal (1.95), Crosby Anytime Goalscorer (2.45), Crosby Over 2.5 Shots on Goal (1.69), Crosby Over 0.5 Points (1.48), Crosby Over 0.5 Assists (2.00), William Nylander Anytime Goalscorer (2.30), Nylander First Goalscorer (8.00), Mitch Marner Over 2.5 Shots on Goal (2.00), Morgan Rielly Over 0.5 Assists (2.10), and Michael Bunting Over 0.5 Points (2.05) are leading the way among bettors today. 

At PointsBet, it’s Evgeni Malkin Over 1.5 Shots on Goal (1.48), and Marner Over 0.5 Assists (-165) leading the charge.